PHILADELPHIA --- Ryan Howard swung and fell, a Phillies season was over, and one question opened last October: Would he return from a severe Achilles injury in time for the following season to matter?

Nothing else would be more important to the Phillies in the offseason. Nothing would better dictate whether their 2007-2011 National League East dynasty would continue or crumble. No money spent on free agency would make the question go away. No attention to the outer edges of the roster would camouflage that reality.

Either Howard would be healthy enough to help the Phillies win another division championship, or his recuperation would so linger that by the time he'd return a season would be lost.

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Howard returned Friday night at Citizens Bank Park to a warm ovation, doubled on his first swing since the 2011 NLDS and was applauded even more. He went 2-for-4, fielded without evident wincing and completed what should have been --- what used to be --- a fine major league lineup, one including Chase Utley.

But the Phillies were typically unacceptable at the plate and Antonio Bastardo allowed a scoreless game to spin out of control in the eighth inning of a 5-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves. And so, there was the answer, underlined: No, Howard did not return in time to matter.

The Phillies were 13 games behind the Nationals by the time Howard recovered from his injury, recovered from a post-surgery complication, served a rehab stint in the minors and was hustled to Philadelphia at the back end of a long Fourth of July week. They were behind the Mets, the Braves and the Marlins, too, and were not even worthy of playoff fantasies in a year when an extra at-large bid would be available.

It's too late for the Phillies to rally this season, not at their age, not this far behind, not with the way they cannot hit. Still, they keep saying otherwise, keep insisting they can be in the playoffs again.

"I am very confident that we can," Charlie Manuel said. "But we have to play a lot better than we have played in this first half. But also, by getting Utley and Howard back, it is definitely going to create more offense for us. And hopefully that will help us be the resilient team that we used to be and we can play better baseball. That's what it's going to take. I always get back to 'outplay the other team.' That's exactly what we have done in the past. And that's exactly where we are now.

"Our backs are to the wall. But at the same time, we can come a long way. So you don't ever quit. And you don't give up. You just keep going. You might get upset and get mad but when it is all said and done, you come back out and you love to play and you take it to them the next day."

In the fourth, Utley did what he'd so often done in an All-Star career. He got himself hit by a pitch. With one out, then, Howard strolled to the plate, another sellout crowd humming in delight. Howard hit into a double play.

He will hit into plenty of double plays, drill plenty of doubles, hit home runs, be productive, be Ryan Howard or close to Ryan Howard.

But the All-Star Game is next week and the Phillies are in retreat, their manager is at a loss and their general manager is making phone calls to other general managers, his hand over the speaker to discourage lip-reading.

"It always seems like something creeps in and nails us at the end," Manuel said before the game. "We've got to get over that."

Utley grounded out to end the sixth, with Jimmy Rollins on third, Shane Victorino on first, Howard on deck, nostalgia cascading.

The fans had waited for just that moment. But they were made to wait too long. Because once Howard fell down last October, the Phillies never did get back up.